Making a difference motivates us all

We should all push ourselves to understand what we can achieve

Back in 1959, Fredrick Herzberg created his motivational theory. As you may know, this identified certain 'hygiene' or maintenance factors, such as salary, relationship to manager and security that are required for people to perform at work at a satisfactory level. In addition, he identified notably different factors, including advancement, achievement, recognition and responsibility, that he described as the 'true motivators' or drivers of personal development.

Transferring this to our industry and to agency life, I feel we should all push ourselves to understand what we can achieve and what responsibility we should take for healthcare improvement. At Lucid, we believe we should make a difference in everything we do: to us, this means making a difference to our clients, to experts, to our internal team and ultimately to patients.

Changing patients' livesWe are part of an amazing industry but at times I don't believe that we understand the opportunity we have to change patients' lives. This year alone, Lucid has supported enough medical education meetings to impact the care of an estimated eight million patients.

I'm not suggesting that all eight million patients are going to be personally affected by our education, but the potential reach of our work focuses our minds. At a recent Lucid symposium in Barcelona, the care of 250,000 patients with Crohn's disease was represented in one room. I'm not convinced that within the industry the quality of thinking about programmes always reflects the size of the opportunity.

This year alone, Lucid has supported enough medical education meetings to impact the care of an estimated eight million patients

Our approach has changed at Lucid in recent years. We used to focus on creating compelling education that was clinically relevant. But we now feel we were missing the point. It's not good enough for healthcare professionals (HCPs) to finish an education programme and think it was interesting. We don't believe this taps into Herzberg's concept of advancement or achievement. To truly achieve, we want to see clinical practice change; we want patients to be positively affected; and we want to demonstrate that we have made that difference.

As a result, we work with our clients to really understand their strategy, and, most importantly, to understand how they see the future of clinical care in the area. Our best work with clients, as with most agencies, is when we build a long-term, strategic partnership. This is a core part of our culture at Lucid. We believe it's so important, not because it's more profitable or it's easier, but because we want to advance our thinking, challenge ourselves and take responsibility for our impact on clinical care over the long term.

Clients tend to have a brilliant vision and strategy for their brands. These strategies usually involve improving the way a disease is treated. To be most effective, this requires a consistent and sustained education programme that is co-ordinated over time and supports HCPs to make changes in their behaviour. This is not a set of tactics that can be delivered by one agency one year, and another the next - it's a long-term approach to make a real difference to clinical care. That's why partnership is so important to Lucid, and that's why we focus on delivering the best service we can, because without a partnership, it's difficult to demonstrate we can truly impact patients' lives.

Education beyond knowledgeThe pharmaceutical industry invests millions every year to educate HCPs. Much of this education is designed with a focus on knowledge and awareness of data, in the hope that this translates to changing patient management. Our experience at Lucid has taught us that if we simply focus on knowledge, our education is sub-optimal. Our starting point should always be: what change do we want to see in patient care? This helps us focus on the required changes in clinical practice behaviour and helps us craft a tailored education programme, which goes beyond just knowledge, to make a difference.

Of course, not all our work with clients comprises long-term, strategic programmes, but our thought process is always the same. Every tactic, every intervention is a step towards achieving a brand vision and changing a patient's life. So next time you're planning a meeting, I urge you to think deeply: what step can we make to achieve our vision? What change should we be expecting in patient care? In some cases, it may be about knowledge, but in many cases it's not and we should always think carefully about what we're trying to really achieve.

As Herzberg (more or less) said, making a difference is motivating. We're finding that at Lucid. Let's do it as an industry.